5 1 0:Exchange Restore

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Welcome to the latest SEP sesam documentation version 5.1.0 Apollon. For previous documentation version(s), check documentation archive.


Overview


SEP sesam GUI provides a restore feature for Exchange mailbox databases, complete mailboxes, or individual items using the Exchange Recovery Pro tool. Alternatively, manual restore is supported for compressed or encrypted backups, or for Linux systems where Exchange Recovery Pro cannot be installed. On Windows systems, Exchange Recovery Pro can be installed on the SEP sesam Server or RDS, enhancing the restore process by enabling browsing and searching through backed-up mailboxes. The tool's drag-and-drop functionality simplifies the restoration of emails, calendars, and other individual items. On Linux systems, you can use the GUI to perform a manual restore. This procedure involves an integrated SEP sesam restore wizard in combination with Exchange Recovery Pro and allows recovery to a live Exchange server or mailbox.

SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro works with your existing Microsoft Exchange Server backup architecture and procedures to recover individual mailboxes, folders, messages, attachments, calendar items, notes, and tasks directly to your production Microsoft Exchange Server or any Personal Folders (PST) file. This eliminates time-consuming and expensive single mailbox (brick-level) backups. Exchange Recovery Pro also lets you search and create a copy of all archived email that matches a given keyword or criteria.

Before attempting to recover Exchange, all preparation steps have to be performed properly, including configuration and backup. For details, see Exchange Configuration and Exchange Backup.

As of v. 5.0.0 Jaglion, it is possible to restore a single Exchange mailbox database with SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro via the web interface Restore Assistant, but individual emails, folders, calendars, etc., can only be restored via the GUI restore wizard. For details, see Web Exchange Restore.

Key features

Simple and fast restore of an individual mailbox
Restore mail items from a full backup directly into your production Microsoft Exchange Server, or directly into a new or existing PST file. Individual mailboxes can be restored directly from a Microsoft Exchange Server Database (EDB) file.
Search & find across all mailboxes
An Advanced Find feature enables you to search across all mailboxes in an archive EDB file, rather than searching one mailbox at a time or bringing an old backup back online for analysis. You can search by a variety of criteria, including keywords, subject, date, and specific users.

Prerequisites

Before attempting to recover Exchange, all preparation steps have to be performed properly, including configuration and backup. Make sure that the following conditions are met:

  • A SEP sesam data store Path, SEP sesam Si3 deduplication store or HPE StoreOnce is required for instant single item recovery.
  • If the backups are encrypted, compressed or stored on tape or a Linux data store, a manual restore to a Windows x64 system (with installed SEP sesam Client, Exchange Recovery Pro for Exchange, Microsoft Outlook (32-bit, 2007/2010/2013/2016)) is required. An additional Outlook license is not required and does not need to be activated.
  • Make sure that there is sufficient free space on the Windows x64 system that will be used to recover the Exchange database and corresponding transaction log files.
  • SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro can only be run by users with administrative privileges and in administrative mode.

Limitations

  • If you have ever copied or moved a message using Microsoft Office Outlook, and later restored that same item with SEP sesam Recovery Pro, the message may be duplicated. This is because the message ID numbers differ between SEP sesam Recovery Pro and the Microsoft Exchange Server.
  • Newly created mailboxes on the Microsoft Exchange Server do not become visible within SEP sesam Recovery Pro until someone has logged onto the mailboxes with Microsoft Office Outlook, or at least one message is delivered (or copied) to the mailbox. Until one of these two events occurs, there is no physical mailbox, only directory information.
  • SEP sesam Recovery Pro does not check messages or attachments for viruses when restoring them from the database. If your server antivirus program has current signature files, it should identify and protect against infected messages when the restored messages are on the live server.
  • Due to the database nature of the PST file and the MAPI subsystem, PSTs opened as source will be modified.
  • Mailbox Creation Wizard is not supported on Windows Server 2012 R2 as Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 or earlier Management Tools is not supported on Windows Sever 2012 R2.
  • The Message Table and Attachment Table Views do not support Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 or later EDB sources as Microsoft stopped supporting single instance storage with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.
  • The following SEP sesam Excange Recovery Pro features are not supported with Microsoft Exchange Server 2016:
    • MailboxCreation Wizard
    • Content Analysis Store
    • Message views
    • Reports
    • Exporting organizational forms

Connection modes

SEP sesam Recovery Pro supports more ways of connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server target. You can set your connection preferences in the Exchange Recovery Pro -> Edit -> Preferences -> Target Options.

  • Outlook Anywhere: In Microsoft Exchange Server, the Outlook Anywhere feature (also known as RPC over HTTP) allows clients to connect using HTTP. This enables users outside of an organisation's network to connect to the Microsoft Exchange Server without using VPN. If you are using Outlook Anywhere to connect to a target Microsoft Exchange Server, SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro uses Autodiscover to determine the correct connection policies. If Autodiscover is not in use or cannot determine the connection policies, the Outlook Anywhere page appears, displaying the values from the most recent successful connection using Outlook Anywhere. The values are empty if no previous connection exists.
    Outlook Anywhere is supported by Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016 using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and later.
  • Note
    Microsoft Outlook 2003 is not supported on Microsoft Exchange Server 2013. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, direct MAPI access to the Microsoft Exchange Server is no longer supported, so Outlook Anywhere is required to connect to the server.
  • Autodiscover: Simplifies the process of connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server by returning the connection settings when requested by a client application. Clients such as Microsoft Outlook can retrieve the connection settings by issuing a request to Autodiscover with the user's SMTP email address. These settings are then used to configure the user profile and establish a connection. Autodiscover is supported by Microsoft Outlook 2007 and later, using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and later.

Restore using Exchange Recovery Pro

Note
If a backup is only available on tape media and you want to use the Exchange Recovery Pro, you must first restore the target saveset into a file system (as described in the section Manual restore from tape or Linux SEP sesam Server) or migrate the saveset from the tape to a SEP sesam data store.
  1. From the SEP sesam GUI menu bar, select Activities -> Restore. The New Restore Task window opens.
  2. Select the Exchange saveset you want to restore. You can search savesets by task name or by filename or path.
    • If searching by task name, use the drop-down list of available tasks and select the one you want to restore from. This option is selected by default.
    • If searching by filename/path, select the option Filename or path in a saveset and enter your search expression in the search pattern field.
  3. Under the Saved in period drop-down lists, specify the time frame for which you want to conduct the search. Click Next.
  4. The search results are displayed. From the list of savesets matching your query, select the desired version by clicking on it, then click SEP sesam Recovery Pro for Exchange. Do not select any special options such as Mount saveset because Recovery Pro mounts the target saveset by default. Click Next.

  5. Select the database you want to restore. As it is only possible to restore one database at a time, DO NOT select any of the subfolders and select a whole database on the second layer. Click Next.

  6. A mount action is triggered: the selected saveset is mounted to the SEP sesam directory var\tmp\mnt. Click OK to display a note about the Exchange Recovery Pro shortcut, which has been saved to the SEP sesam server desktop.
    Warning
    Do not click the Finish button until your restore has been completed. Clicking Finish will close the Exchange Recovery Pro, the saveset will be unmounted and your restore session will be closed.


  7. Double-click the Exchange Recovery Pro shortcut (RPEX) on your desktop. SEP sesam Exchange Recovery Pro opens, and a Data Wizard is displayed.

  8. Select the source type and specify the location, then click Finish. The database is displayed in the Source window.
  9. Search the mailboxes and mails you want to restore. You can browse the mailboxes and emails or click the magnifying glass icon to open the Find dialog.

  10. Now click the third icon from the left to select the target Exchange server. The Target Selection opens.

  11. Select the target. If you are restoring a single mailbox, enter the email address of the mailbox user whose mailbox/emails you want to restore. Depending on your SEP sesam version, proceed as follows:
    • In v. ≥ 4.4.3 Beefalo (Exchange Recovery pro 7.6): Enter or select the server name from the drop-down list and click Next.
    • In v. < 4.4.3 Beefalo (Exchange Recovery pro 7.5): Enter or select the server name from the drop-down list, and enable the options Connect using Autodiscover and Connect using Outlook Anywhere. Click Next.
  12. A security certificate warning pops up. Click Yes to proceed and enter the mailbox user name and its password to open the target. The live target Exchange is opened below in the Target window.
  13. In the Source window, select the items you want to restore and drag & drop them to the target destination. Note that you can create a new folder in the target destination, e.g., Restore, to provide the mailbox user with quick access to the restored items.

  14. If you want to restore additional mailboxes/emails, select a new target. Otherwise, close SEP sesam Recovery Pro. In the SEP sesam GUI (New Restore Task window), click Finish and then OK to unmount the saveset and close your restore session.

Manual restore from tape or Linux SEP sesam Server

If your Exchange backups are encrypted, compressed or stored on tape or a Linux data store, a manual restore to a Windows x64 system (with installed SEP sesam Client, Exchange Recovery Pro for Exchange, Microsoft Outlook (32-bit, 2007/2010/2013/2016)) is required.

  1. From the SEP sesam GUI menu bar, select Activities -> Restore.
  2. To configure your restore task, select the Exchange saveset you want to restore. From the list of savesets matching your query, select the desired version by clicking it. Do not select any special options such as Mount saveset. Click Next.

  3. In the Select Files dialog, first select the option File view below the displayed results (default: Mailbox view). The data from the selected saveset is displayed in a hierarchical tree structure. Select the database and log files you want to restore. Click Next.

  4. In the Target Settings window (previously Save and Start), set additional restore options.
    • From the Target node drop-down list, select the new target node on which the SEP sesam Client, Exchange Recovery Pro for Exchange and Microsoft Outlook (32-bit, 2007/2010/2013/2016) are installed. Make sure that there is sufficient free space in the selected directory for the restore.
    • Under the Target path settings, select New restore target and browse for the new target path.
    • Make sure that the option As path backup is selected: Click the button Expert Options -> in the Expert Options dialog switch to the Task Type tab and check whether the option As path backup is selected.
    • Note
      The Expert Options button for specifying advanced restore options is available only in advanced UI mode (formerly expert GUI mode). To use Expert Options, make sure your UI mode is set to advanced. For details, see Selecting UI mode.

    Click Next and then Start to start the restore.

  5. Open the Exchange Recovery Pro and from the menu bar select File -> Use wizard to start the Data Wizard.
  6. Select the location of the .edb and .log files, i.e., EDB Path, Log File Path and Temporary File Path.

  7. Connect to the target Exchange server. Select one of the following options:
    • Export e-mails, contacts, ... to a .pst file.
    • Exporting to PST: You can export to a .pst file from the Source and Target panes, the Source and Target Message lists and the Source and Target Find windows.
  8. Recover to a live Exchange server/mailbox. If there is a special user with administrative access to all mailboxes, you can select Microsoft Exchange Server (All mailboxes) as the target and use that user's credentials for authentication. If there is no such user, you can connect to a Single mailbox with the correct user credentials. Depending on your SEP sesam version, proceed as follows:
    • In v. ≥ 4.4.3 Beefalo (Exchange Recovery pro 7.6): Enter or select the domain controller and server name from the drop down lists, and click Next.

    • In v. < 4.4.3 Beefalo (Exchange Recovery pro 7.5): Enter or select the domain controller and server name from the drop down lists, and enable the options Connect using Autodiscover and Connect using Outlook Anywhere. For details on connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server target, see Connection modes. You can set your connection preferences in the Exchange Recovery Pro -> Edit -> Preferences -> Target Options.
    • Note
      If you are using Exchange/DAG < 2016, you do not have to enable the Autodiscover and Outlook Anywhere connection options.


  9. The Data Wizard starts processing the EDB file and displays the message Now Processing Data File. When the processing is finished, the Data Wizard is closed. The results are displayed in the Source and Target panes.
  10. Drag and drop the specific items to the online mailbox/Exchange server (Target pane) or view/export them with a right-click.

Exchange DB recovery

Sometimes you have to recover your Exchange databases (.edb) manually; after the restore, it might happen that Exchange databases remain in the dirty shutdown which suggests that some required log files are missing. In such case, you have to use eseutil to put the database to the clean shutdown state and recover it.

Exchange recovery basically consists of the following:

  • Use SEP sesam to restore the Exchange database – select Exchange backup you want to restore, then restore EDB and log files to the original location.
  • Use eseutil to determine the EDB state. In most cases, the state is in dirty shutdown.
  • Determine which log files are required: eseutil /mh
  • Perform soft recovery to obtain a clean shutdown state: with eseutil /R.
  • Recheck database state
  • Mount the restored DB

About eseutil

eseutil is a command line utility intended for Exchange database recovery. This tool can be used to perform a range of database tasks from repair, offline defragmentation, and integrity checks in Exchange Server. eseutil can be run on one database at a time from the command line from the Exchange Bin folder. For example, in Exchange 2013/2016, eseutil is located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Bin; the path is similar for other Exchange server versions.

Note
Repairing Exchange databases with eseutil can cause data loss. Before using this utility, copy the original database and log files to a safe place, then copy them into a working directory. eseutil will modify the database files; as it is not possible to undo changes that are made to a database during the repair process, this way you will still have your original database files stored at a safe place.

Ensure that the recovery server has sufficient disk space for eseutil to run. You may need as much as 125% of the actual size of the Information Store database. You can also specify another disk or volume as a temporary location for running eseutil.

Steps

  1. From the SEP sesam GUI menu bar, select Activities -> Restore.
  2. To configure your restore task, select the Exchange saveset you want to restore. From the list of savesets matching your query, select the desired version by clicking it. Do not select any special options such as Mount saveset. Click Next.
  3. Data from the selected saveset is displayed in a hierarchical tree structure. Select the database and log files you want to restore. Click Next.
  4. Review your restore task. From the Target node drop-down list, select the new target node on which the SEP sesam Client, Exchange Recovery Pro for Exchange and Microsoft Outlook are installed. Make sure that there is sufficient free space in the selected directory for the restore. Click Start to start the restore.
    Repeat the restore for the log files if necessary.
  5. Repairing Exchange databases with eseutil can cause data loss. Before using this utility, copy the original database and log files to a safe place as it is not possible to undo changes that are made to a database during the repair process. For details, see About eseutil.
  6. Next, in the command line change directories to the location of the EDB file and use eseutil to check the state of the database. It should be in a dirty shutdown state at the moment.
  7. Determine which log files are required for the database to be put to clean shutdown state by running eseutil /mh. It will show the log required. In our example, the database files (*.edb and *.stm) are located in the temp directory e:\temp\data and called exhdbh.edb,exhdbh.stm; you also need the transaction logs (Exx*.log where xx is a number relating to the information store). Lets assume these are copied to e:\temp\logs. For example, if they reside in the first storage group, the transaction logs will be called E00.log (the most recent base file) and E00xxxx.log etc. (old logs).
  8.  eseutil /mh "<full_path_to_database>"

    In our case:

      eseutil /mh "e:\temp\data\exchdb.edb"

    The output under the DATABASE HEADER will show a line State : Dirty Shutdown. (If the state is Clean Shutdown, you do not need to perform this procedure.) The next line is Log Required which shows the log files needed for the recovery (the files which had not yet been run into the database when the dirty shutdown occurred). For example:

     Log Required 124-124 (0x7c-0x7c) 

    means file E000000007C. These required files are needed to recover the database to a clean shutdown without data loss.

    Note
    If you tried to recover the database with only Log Required logs and not Log Committed logs, operation will fail with error. To solve this problem, add the log files listed in the Log Committed field to your log directory. Or, run the utility again and include the /a switch (eseutil /a) to let Exchange mount the database even if the transaction logs are missing.
  9. Check consistency and availability of required logs by using eseutil /ml together with your log directory path and log prefix.
  10.  eseutil /ml <path_to_log_files_folder_with_log_prefix>

    In our example, the log prefix is E00.

     eseutil /ml e:\temp\logs\E00
  11. Once the check is finished, recover the database state to clean shutdown. Use eseutil /l to insert location of the log file together with switch /d, where you specify the fully qualified path to the directory with the .edb file – make sure to specify only the directory path and NOT the full path to the .edb file! Once you execute the command, the missing logs are restored to the database.
  12. ESEUTIL /r <log_prefix> /l <path_to_log_files_folder> /d <path_to_database_folder>

    In our example, you enter:

     eseutil /R E00 /l "e:\temp\logs" /d "e:\temp\data"
    Note
    In case of any errors, make sure that when using eseutil /r /d, you do not specify the full path to the .edb. Instead of specifying /d "e:\temp\data\exhdbh.edb", specify path only to the directory with the .edb: /d "e:\temp\data". Even though a lot of internet sources mention that sometimes the full path will work with eseutil /d, it will not work with full path for the soft repair; switch /d is only used with full path when used as a parameter for database defrag, which you would only perform if you have run the hard repair: eseutil /p. However, it is strongly advised against using hard repair if the .edb file and the required logs exist and are available; eseutil /p will delete files, such as corrupt data or incomplete transactions, to bring the database to a consistent state. Therefore hard repair should only be used in extreme cases where no other option is available, e.g., no good available backup exists and the required log files are missing or corrupted. Refer to your Microsoft documentation for details.
  13. Recheck the database state with the command from step 7.
  14.  eseutil /mh "<full_path_to_database>"

    The database should now be in the Clean Shutdown state without any error messages. You can now put it back into Exchange – copy it back to the original location on your Exchange server and mount the file.

    Note
    According to Microsoft, to make sure that a database mounts you may have to select the This database can be overwritten by a restore check box on the database object properties in the Exchange Management Console.

Monitoring restore

You can view the status of your restore jobs in the Restore Assistant by clicking the monitoring icon (second icon in the upper right corner), via SEP sesam Web UI (Monitoring -> Restores), or view the status in the GUI (Main Selection -> Job State -> Restores). The restore overview provides detailed information on the last run of restore jobs, including task name, status (successful, error, in queue...), start and stop time of the last backup, data size, throughput, etc. For details, see Monitoring in the Web UI or Restores by State in the GUI.


Known issues

If you have problems with Exchange, check the Troubleshooting Guide.

See also

Web Exchange RestoreExchange ConfigurationExchange BackupRestore AssistantAll Exchange versions

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